5:50 PM, February 24, 2014

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A 36-year-old man from Independence Township apparently shot and killed himself by accident while trying to demonstrate gun safety to his girlfriend after he had been drinking, authorities said.

Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at about 9 p.m. Sunday to a home on the 4400 block of Pinedale, near Sashabaw and Maybee roads, where the man’s girlfriend was performing CPR.

The girlfriend told authorities that the man had been drinking all day and was explaining to her that his three handguns are safe when they aren’t loaded, according to Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe. He demonstrated by placing the guns against his head and pulling the trigger.

When he pulled the trigger on the third handgun, it discharged. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three children, ages 7, 10, and 12, were home at the time but didn’t witness the shooting, McCabe said. They weren’t hurt. Authorities said they weren’t the man’s biological children.

Alcohol appears to have been a factor in the shooting, according to the sheriff’s office. The man’s name wasn’t immediately released.

Authorities continue to investigate.

The incident comes on the heels of another accidental shooting that made headlines. On Dec. 30, UAW Vice President General Holiefield was cleaning loaded guns in his Harrison Township home when he shot his wife, who survived the injury.

The labor leader pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless use of a firearm.